apush Ch. 26 terms

Bretton Woods

A 1944 meeting of Western allies to establish a postwar international economic order to avoid crises like the one that spawned World War II. This conference led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which was designed to regulate currency levels and provide aid to underdeveloped countries.

Death of a Salesman,

A 1949 play written by Arthur Miller. In this play, the American Dream is the big theme, but everyone in the play has their own way to describe their own American Dreams. Willy Loman is a failed salesman whose firm fires him after 34 years. Despite his own failures, he desperately wants his sons Biff and Happy to succeed. The story points to Biff's moment of hopelessness, when the former high school star catches his father Willy cheating on his mother, Linda. Eventually, Willy can no longer live with his perceived shortcomings, and commits suicide in an attempt to leave Biff with insurance money.

The Lonely Crowd, David Riesman

A book published in 1950 by David Riesman. It was an analysis of the three main cultural types: tradition-directed, inner-directed, and other-directed. Riesman traces the evolution of society from all three cultures and found that something successful in the past rarely succeeded in modern society, with all of its dynamic changes.

The Crack in the Picture Window, John Keats

A book published in 1956 by John Keats. It is a brilliantly funny but deadly serious report about the housing developments that are blighting the landscape and souls of America's suburbs. The misfortunes of John and Mary Drone, who "bought" a nothing-down, life-time-to-pay box on a slab in rolling knolls, are simply extensions of the problems that beset nearly everyone who exists on the fringes of a city.

Baby Boom

A cohort of individuals born in the United States between 1946 and 1964, which was just after World War II in a time of relative peace and prosperity. These conditions allowed for better education and job opportunities, encouraging high rates of both marriage and fertility.

The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, Benjamin Spock

A manual published in 1946 by Ben Spock. It is a manual on infant and child care that helped revolutionize child-rearing methods for the post-World War II generation. Mothers heavily relied on Spock's advice, and he emphasizes in his book that, above all, parents should have confidence in their abilities and trust their instincts. It became the second best selling book of the 20th century.

Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison

A novel published in 1952 by Ralph Ellison that addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African-Americans early in the twentieth century, including black nationalism, the relationship between black identity and Marxism, and the reformist racial policies of Booker T. Washington.

On the Road, Jack Kerouac

A novel published in 1957 by Jack Kerouac. It is a story based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across America. It is considered a defining work of the postwar beat and counterculture generations, with its protagonists living life against a backdrop of jazz, poetry, and drug use.

National Interstate Highway Act

Enacted on June 29, 1956 when Dwight D. Eisenhower signed this bill into law, it Appropriated $25 billion for the construction of 40,000 miles of interstate highways over a 10-year period to link all the major cities in the U.S. It was the largest public works project in American history to that point.

Betty Friedan

The feminist author of "The Feminine Mystique" in 1960. Her book sparked a new consciousness among suburban women and helped launch the second-wave feminist movement.

Sunbelt

The fifteen-state crescent through the American South and Southwest that experienced terrific population and productivity expansion during World War II and particularly in the decades after the war, eclipsing the old industrial Northeast.

Military-Industrial Complex

Used in Eisenhower's farewell address in 1961, it is a symbiotic relationship between a nation's military, economy, and politics. The idea being that if the military becomes the biggest client for manufacturers then the nation will begin to invest more of its economy into military contracts. Politically, this leads to national budgets being heavily weighed in the military's favor in order to support the economic stability that this relationship seems to create.

GI Bill

Passed in 1944, this law helped returning World War II soldiers reintegrate into civilian life by securing loans to buy homes and farms and set up small businesses and by making tuition and stipends available for them to attend college and job training programs. The Act was also intended to cushion the blow of 15 million returning servicemen on the employment market and to nurture the postwar economy.

Bracero Program

Program established in 1942 by agreement with the Mexican government to recruit temporary Mexican agricultural workers to the United States to make up for wartime labor shortages in the Far West. The program persisted until 1964, by when it had sponsored 4.5 million border crossings.

Sit-coms—1950's style

Starting in the 1950's, it is a genre of comedy programs which originated in radio. Then, sitcoms were found almost exclusively on radios as one of its dominant narrative forms. Sitcoms usually consist of recurring characters in a common environment such as a home or workplace and generally include laugh tracks or studio audiences. They include sticky and awkward situations that many people find common in everyday life.

Levittown

Suburban communities with mass-produced tract houses built in the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas in the 1950's by William Levitt and Sons. They were typically inhabited by white middle-class people who fled the cities in search of homes to buy for their growing families.